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Focus oa Hamas — Page 1: Photo/Story Page 4: Editorial Page Si Special Reposl ' "----------- - -Rristallnacht coverage Page 12
Candlelighting: Friday, December 9, 3:56 p.m.
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VOL. LXI, WO. 4$
THURSDAY, DECESUIBER 8,1994
5 TEVET, 5755
Israel Sun
MOURNERS CRY over a monument erected in memory^of the 22 people killed in the Oct. 19 Hamas bus bombing on Dizengofff Street in Tel Aviv. The monument, designed by sculptor Dan Rapoport, wraps around a tree burned by the explosion.
Plans found for 2 Hamas attacks
JERUSALEM — With U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher due in the Middle East to continue American mediation efforts between Jerusalem and Damascus, Israeli officials say they will agree to resume direct peace talks with Syria only if there Is something to talk about. The Issue of direct Israeli-Syria negotiations, which were broken off last
Israel had turned down a Syrian offer to resume direct negotiations In Washington. Speaking in Brussels, Sharaa said the issue was raised during President Hafez Assad's talks with President Clinton last month In Damascus.
By NAOMI SEGAL
JERUSALEM (JTA) -Security forces last week arrested dozens of members of a Hamas cell, possibly averting at least two planned suicide bombings against Israelis, the Israeli army has announced.
Some 40 suspected Hamas members based in the West Bank were arrested in the sweep by General Security Service agents and soldiers, an army spokesman said.
Among those arrested were several Palestinians who allegedly helped the ter-
rorist, Salah Assawi, when he carried out the Oct. 19 suicide bombing of a bus in the heart of Tel Aviv that killed 22 people, plus Assawi (see photo above).
But army sources said that Yehia Ayash — nicknamed 'Hhe engineer" for his work with explosives and who was believed to have masterminded the Oct. 19 attack as well as others — still remained at large.
During their searches in the West Bank, security forces found a large cache of chemical components used
for making explosives, ammunition, skullcaps similar to those worn by Jewish settlers and Israeli army uniforms.
Suspects told investigators that two attacks were being planned in Petach Tikva and near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Military sources said that a total of some 400 Hamas activists in the territories have been arrested recently in a crackdown on the islamic fundamentalist group.
HAMAS - Page 6
"There was a negative answer from Israel's side," Sharaa told reporters. "Syria has openly stated she is ready to resume peace talks if Israel responds positively to the results of the Clinton-Assad meeting, but there has been no such response."
Sharaa also said his country would normalize relations with Israel if Israel fully withdrew from the Golan Heights. His remark was believed to be the first time a Syrian official spoke of establishing normalized relations with Israel.
But in Israel, officials said the Syrians have still not done enough to begin a
serious dialogue.
Speaking to a closed forum of Labor Knesset members. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin reportedly said that there has been no progress on a number of crucial issues, including security arrangements, the phases of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan and normalization of ties.
The Prime Minister's Office has stated that without high-level direct negotiations at the ministerial level there will not be substantial progress on the Syrian track. Rabin has also suggested that the clock is ticking toward a deadline on
negotiations with Damascus.
"If there is no progress in the Israeli-Syrian track by the end of 1995, a peace agreement between the two countries will not be reached during the tenure of this government," he was quoted as saying in the Israeli daily Davar. Elections are scheduled for 1996.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials are criticizing the European Union's decision last week to lift its eight^year arms embargo against Syria.
"What should have been lifted is (Syria's) embargo on negotiations, not the em-
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two-state solution is the only answer to the current struggle between Israel and the Palestinians because these two nations do not want to be one nation, according to world-renowned Israeli author Amos Oz. Oz based his controversial position on his conclusion that both sides "love and want the same land" and that a creative compromise must be reached so that people can "stop dying and start living."
The author addressed an audience of 300 on Nov. 15 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. His talk was jointly sponsored by the annual Showcase of Jewish Writers/ Book Fair and the new Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library. Oz characterized his speech as "very personal." "I am not a representative of the Israeli government or the opposition or even of other Israeli writers. Anyway, you can't get any two writers to agree, or even one writer to agree with himself," he maintained, exhibiting humor and warmth that obviously appealed to his audience.
Oz described himself as an activist for peace even before the 1977 formation of the "Peace Now" movement, which he called a "manifestation of the idealistic side of Zionism and Judaism."
He himself fought in both the 1967 and 1973 wars, but stated that he believes in fighting only for the defence of life and freedom and "not for ancestral rights or another bedroom for the nation."
Oz's talk was billed as "Israel through its literature." He addressed that topic by discussing the moral dilemma of the artist who lives continually next to suffering, cruelty and injustice, and must struggle not to be coopted by those conditions.
Art should not be used as a balm to soothe the pain of victims, or as a machine gun to avenge injustice, he asserted. Instead, he credited artists, like secret agents, with the ability to put them-
Stories by MARION POLIAKOFF
m
ith benefactress Sophie Waldman and Israeli author .Amos Oz at his side. Rabbi Yosef Wosk affixed the mezzuzah to the door frame as Arnold Selwyn sang Shehechianu. The moving ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 15 marked the formal opening of the Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library on the second floor of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver — and marked a new chapter in the educational and cultural life of the Greater Vancouver Jewish community.
Many of the 300 persons who had just heard Amos Oz speak on the importance of books in Jewish life (story this page) then crowded into the new library to view this repository of Judaic information and materials.
To the right of the entrance was a portrait of Isaac Waldman and a plaque with a dedication from his wife calling him "... a man of wisdom and foresight, who believed education is the most important way to promote tolerance and understanding amongst people."
In the Norman Rothstein Theatre, prior to the Oz address, the audience had heard Sophie Waldman credit Rita and Marvin Weintraub for raising the idea, three years ago, of donating funds for a Jewish library at the expanded JCC in memory of her late husband.
"The tradition of learning was so important to Isaac that the idea appealed to me immediately," she told the rapt audience. "It will repay in some way the happiness we had in Vancouver."
Waldman recounted that the only members of a large family in Poland to survive the Holocaust were herself, a sister and a nephew. She and her husband came to Canada in 1950 with "two suitcases, a trunk with engineering instruments and no English." They were determined to succeed
Robert Edel
FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS: Renowned Israeli author Amos '^st their enthusiasm for building a
Oz attended the gala opening of the Isaac Waldman Jewish stronger Jewish community, both locally and in
Public Library, dedicated In Mr. Waldman's name by his Israel she stated.
JKWiSH IJBRARY — Page 10
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